The present invention relates to a drywall knife.
More particularly, the present invention relates to an ergonomic drywall knife for use in drywall applications and the like, said drywall knife comprising an ergonomic rubberized handle which is lightweight, enables comfortable and multiple hand gripping and has a long-lasting logo. Furthermore, the blade of the drywall knife is mounted to the handle without the use of fasteners.
Drywall knives are very well known in the art. They generally consist of a manipulative handle onto which a blade is securely mounted. The drywall knife can be used by workers to carry out various tasks on drywall and the like. The blade is usually mounted onto the handle by means of fasteners such as bolts and nuts and/or rivets. This is a costly way of manufacturing and assembling drywall knives since using fasteners calls for added parts and added assembly steps. Therefore, it would be useful to provide a drywall knife whose blade is mounted onto the handle without the use of fasteners.
It is also known in the art that workers employing drywall knives usually work for long periods of time and the nature of their work requires them to have their arms in a usually extended manner so as to be able to carry out their tasks on drywalls and the like. Furthermore, they often need to use their drywall knives in order to plaster and smooth out drywall with a usually thick and heavy pastelike mixture, this too being also very tiring on the workers"" arms. Therefore, it would be very useful to provide a drywall knife which is inherently lightweight due to its design.
It is also known in the art that these same workers need to use drywall knives in order to cut, plaster, or finish drywalls and the like, and the various tasks needed to be carried out often require the drywall knives to be manually gripped by the workers in different manners. However, most of the drywall knives in the art are of unwieldy nature because of their shape and size, having often rough edges, which make handling of the drywall knives cumbersome and/or strenuous on workers"" hands. Therefore, it would be very useful to provide a drywall knife with an ergonomic handle enabling comfortable and multiple hand gripping.
It is further known in the art that manufactures often display information on the products they sell by means of labels secured to these same products or by simply printing the information onto the products. However, very often, the labels are deteriorated or become detached and the prints fade out after a while. Furthermore, this additional step of having to label a product after it has been manufactured constitutes additional costs. Therefore, it would be very useful to provide a drywall knife having a handle which is manufactured by a molding process which is capable of producing a sign on the handle of the drywall knife while the handle is molded, said sign lasting all throughout the working life of the drywall knife handle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,956,799 granted on Sep. 28th, 1999 to Panaccione et al. describes an ergonomic putty knife and scraper handle manufactured from at least two different hardness injection molded polymers having a plurality of harder longitudinal ribs embedded in a softer overlay but exposed on both top and bottom surfaces in strategic locations. The longitudinal ribs provided non-binding contact with fabric surfaces to ease the insertion and removal of the handle into and from a user""s pocket for temporary storage of the tool when not in use. When employing the tool for its intended purpose, however, the user enjoys the comfort, efficiency and safety of an ergonomic handle offering a xe2x80x9csoft touchxe2x80x9d to thumb and fingers in those locations requiring superior grippability.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,615,445 granted on Apr. 1st, 1997 to Kelsay et al. describes a taping knife which includes a blade with an elongated handle secured to the blade. The plastic handle includes a durable inner member and a grippable outer core. The hollow inner member is formed from adjoining member halves which have an inner structural support network of ribs. The handle component parts sealably interlock and are secured together upon formation of the outer grippable core whose material flows into certain ribbed network compartments and secures the interlocking parts together.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,850,663 granted on Dec. 22nd, 1998 to Hardy et al. describes an ergonomic handle for a spreading tool designed to permit and encourage the user to grasp the handle with his/her fore and middle fingers extended onto the blade. The extended fingers are fully supported by an arch in the head of the handle, which combined with its comfortable gripping portion for the palm, thumb, ring and little fingers, allows proper alignment of the wrist and increased leverage on the blade while working the tool, yet minimizes fatigue, pain and the potential for injury.
None of the above-mentioned patents disclose or suggest an ergonomic drywall knife which is inherently lightweight due to its design and whose blade is mounted onto the handle without the use of fasteners, while enabling comfortable and multiple hand gripping and displaying a long-lasting logo.
The main objects of the present invention are to provide a drywall knife which satisfies each of the above-mentioned needs.
More particularly, a first object of the invention is to provide an ergonomic drywall knife which is inherently lightweight due to its design.
A second object of the invention is to provide an ergonomic drywall knife whose blade is mounted onto the handle without the use of fasteners, due to the design of the handle and blade.
A third object of the invention is to provide an ergonomic drywall knife having an ergonomic handle enabling comfortable and multiple hand gripping.
A fourth object of the invention is to provide an ergonomic drywall knife having a handle which is manufactured by a molding process which is capable of producing a sign on the handle of the drywall knife while said handle is molded, said sign lasting all throughout the working life of the drywall knife handle.
In accordance with the invention, the above objects are achieved by an improved drywall knife of the type comprising a handle having an elongated inner core comprising a longitudinal axis, a transverse axis, a front end, a rear end and first and second opposite surfaces extending from the rear end to the front end of the inner core along the longitudinal axis thereof. The drywall knife further comprises a blade securely mounted to the front end of the inner core.
This drywall knife is improved in that the inner core of the handle comprises at least one recess having an opening facing the first surface so as to reduce the overall weight of the drywall knife, and the inner core further comprises a lid hingedly mounted to the first surface of the inner core, the lid being positioned and sized to be folded about an axis parallel to the longitudinal axis of the inner core so as to cover the at least one recess. Such a feature makes the drywall knife lightweight.
Preferably, the front end of the inner core is provided with a slit extending along the transversal axis of the inner core. The slit preferably comprises two shoulders extending parallel to the longitudinal axis of the inner core and defining an insertion slot into which the blade of the drywall knife is securely inserted. The blade of the drywall knife preferably consists of a thin plate having an edge provided with a fishbone comprising tooth edges. The fishbone is devised to be inserted into the insertion slot at the front end of the inner core so that when the fishbone is inserted into the slot, the tooth edges grip into the shoulders and prevent the blade from being removed from the inner core of the drywall knife. This feature permits to mount the blade onto the handle without the use of fasteners.
Preferably also, the inner core with the lid in folded position is covered with a covering material so as to facilitate hand gripping of the drywall knife. Furthermore, the front end of the inner core is preferably slanted onto the blade in such a manner that a user of the drywall knife can rest his or her hand onto the front end of the inner core and onto the blade in a substantially flat manner. Moreover, the inner core preferably comprises a first finger support portion adjacent the front end of the handle on one of the first and second opposite surfaces of the inner core for supporting at least one extended finger of the user""s hand holding the drywall knife. Preferably also, the inner core further comprises a second finger support portion adjacent the front end of the handle on the other one of the first and second opposite surfaces for supporting at least one other extended finger of the user""s hand. Preferably also, each finger support portion respectively comprises two finger-shaped recessed cavities, each finger-shaped recessed cavity being used for optionally supporting a user""s finger when holding the drywall knife. The above-mentioned features are primarily intended to allow for a more comfortable hand grip and also to enable various hand grips of the drywall knife. This gives to the drywall knife an ergonomic handle enabling comfortable and multiple hand gripping.
Preferably also, the second surface of the inner core of the handle is provided with a protuberance comprising an outer surface having at least one groove in the shape of a sign. Preferably also, the second surface further comprises at least one channel leading within the inner core to the at least one groove, such that when the inner core is covered with the covering material, the outer surface of the protuberance is not covered by the covering material and thus remains visible and the at least one channel and the at least one groove of the second surface of the inner core are both filled-up with the covering material to produce the at least one sign on the outer surface of the protuberance of the second surface. The sign on the protuberance of the second surface is preferably selected from a group consisting of names, words, numbers, logos, trademarks and symbols conveying information. This feature permits to manufacture the handle by a molding process which is capable of producing a sign on the handle of the drywall knife while the handle is molded, the sign lasting all throughout the working life of the drywall knife handle.
The invention and its advantages will be better understood by reading the following non-restrictive description of a preferred embodiment thereof, made with reference to the accompanying drawings.